Attitudes and Beliefs Towards Psychotherapeutic Treatment among School Students

Over the decades, a multitude of researches have pointed towards school going students as being one of the most vulnerable populations for mental health concerns like depression and anxiety. This thus indicates towards a need to study treatment seeking behaviours among this population. The main objective of this study is to identify awareness and understand the attitudes of Indian school going students towards psychotherapy as a treatment option for their concerns. A sample of 60 students aged between 16-19 years were taken from both government and private schools. A semi-structured sociodemographic data sheet was prepared and tools like Attitudes towards Seeking Professional Help Scale and Belief in Efficacy of Psychotherapy Scale were administered to assess attitudes towards psychotherapeutic treatment. The results of the study were found to be interesting and will be discussed in the full paper. The results and conclusion of the present study are expected to greatly contribute to designing Mental Health Awareness programmes at school level.